Flying Cell Phone Viciously Strikes Rider on Coaster, Suffers Bloody Head Injury

There is certainly a reason that theme park Guests secure all loose articles before they get on an attraction, especially a roller coaster.

Some roller coasters will even force Guests to go through metal detectors to ensure that they are not bringing on anything to protect other riders. We have seen this heavily at Universal Orlando Resort on VelociCoaster, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, and The Incredible Hulk Coaster. Other attractions typically warn Guests before they ride. At Walt Disney World (if you have ever been on Big Thunder Mountain, you know the iconic spiel that tells you to ” best remove” your loose articles since it is the wildest ride in the wilderness). At Sea World Orlando, Guests are provided with lockers at every attraction at an additional cost.

Related: Woman Violently Tossed Out of Attraction at Apocalypse Theme Park, Left Burned

These rules are put in place so that loose articles do not fall from the coaster and injure Guests on the ground or other Guests on the ride. It also protects the rider’s belongings by ensuring they do not fall out or break or get damaged/lost. A recent ride on Maverick at Ceder Point in Sandusky, Ohio, proved precisely why bringing a cell phone on a coaster with you can be a horrible idea.

USA Today reported on a recent injury taking place on July 22, when a cell phone flew from one Guest, striking another in the face and causing him to bleed and feel dizzy. The report reads, “A Cedar Point season-pass holder was diagnosed with a concussion after he said he was hit in the head Saturday by a loose iPhone while riding a roller coaster at the Ohio amusement park.”I had blood dripping down my face, and I felt a bit dizzy,” David Carter, a paramedic in his 20s, told the Detroit Free Press.”

Carter has said the mobile phone flew out of a the pocket of a boy riding ahead of him on the Maverick roller coaster on social media, and it wasn’t the only phone lost on the ride. According to Carter, the boy’s mother also lost her phone during the ride when it fell into the water below. Cedar Point Confirmed the injury and stated that they treated the Guest with their first aid team.

There are select rides that do not allow any loose articles at Cedar Point, including Valravn, GateKeeper, Rougarou, Magnum XL-200, Steel Vengeance and Millennium Force. Rides like Maverick have storage bins for Guests to use, but they are optional.

Afterwards, Carter was diagnosed with a concussion, which is unsurprising as he had a bloody gash on his head. According to reports, “Cedar Point, he said, reimbursed him for his Fast Pass and offered him free meals for the rest of the day. However, he added, the incident occurred at 6:35 p.m., and he did not leave the Park’s first aid department until 8:30 p.m. Carter only received one free meal before the Park closed for the day.”

Cedar Point describes the wild coaster as:

Maverick acts more like a bucking bronco than a coaster. It’s a ride for the daring who want one of a kind thrills beyond the big hills. This terra coaster is packed with twists, corkscrews, launches, tunnels, and plenty of airtime, so saddle up for a ride wilder than the rodeo. The first launch of two gets you to the top of the first hill, which travels down and under at the steepest angle at Cedar Point 95 degrees. Only one airtime hill comes before the first ever Twisted Horseshoe Roll, two 360-degree corkscrew rolls of opposite direction separated by only a 180-degree banked curve. Next thing you know riders are in a pitch black tunnel getting launched 400 feet at 70 m.p.h. in 3 seconds. It still manages to catch riders by surprise at every bank and turn, even after being awarded the Golden Ticket Award for “Best New Ride in 2007”. There’s nothing wilder in the West than Maverick.

Cedar Point has been the scene of a few theme park injuries; we recently reported that debris from one of their roller coasters broke off from the ride during Memorial Day Weekend. According to officials in the Park, part of a urethane tire tread separated from the wheel on the famous roller coaster, Corkscrew, fell onto the midway, where Guests have a path to walk through the coaster safely. Read more here.

On August 15 of 2021, there was an accident at Cedar Point (owned by Cedar Fair) that involved the 420-foot (128-meter) tall Top Thrill Dragster roller coaster, according to ABC News. The coaster, which opened in 2003, launches riders on a straightaway at 120 mph (193 kph) before it climbs a hill and then comes back down. Lasting only 20 seconds, the ride is highly thrilling for Guests but things went wrong for one rider who was allegedly struck by a metal object while riding. The Guest was moved from one hospital to another, but the severity of the injury was not announced by ABC, however, other reports noted the woman was left with brain damage. 

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